


Luck is better off shared

by Afflitto



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: DenNor, M/M, dennor week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 02:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5610724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afflitto/pseuds/Afflitto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Yeah, but maybe this wasn’t a coincidence at all,” Mathias said, “So looks like we’ll have some catching up to do.”    Dennor Week prompt for "Childhood Friends"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Luck is better off shared

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the dennor week prompt "childhood friends"
> 
> I kind of had a weird take on this, but sometimes I'm just in funky moods I guess. 
> 
> I meant to do more prompts for dennor week (and maybe will have time tomorrow or sunday??) but my computer died a few days ago and I had to go through the process of getting a new one and getting it all set up and it took fOREVER. This particular typing machine is pretty fun, though, so I suppose that's good.

It was just a hole in the wall.

The bar itself was resin poured over bottlecaps, sticky from spilled beer and a certain listlessness that came from 3 in the morning.  Mathias Kohler sat hunched over the counter, nursing a glass between his hands.  He kept his long coat tugged tight around him.

The bartender drifted toward the rounded tables where a few men sat.  Mathias glanced back, but saw nothing of interest, just bleary eyes and half-filled beers.  Their mumbling barely scratched at the thick quiet.  He shifted and sighed as he checked his watch. 

“You don’t have a bed to go to?”

Mathias gripped the edge of the bar to stop himself from falling from his chair—whirling around to stare at the man who stood at his shoulder.

“Huh what?”

The man shrugged.  The shadows clung to the circles under his eyes, but he had a sense of calm in a petite frame and delicate face, body relaxed, expression bored.  Blond hair only made him seem paler, especially in the dimmed lights.  He did not answer, but slid onto the stool beside Mathias and set his arms on the bar.

The bartender brought the man a beer after an exchanged look, and brushed past.

Mathias finally found his voice.  “You—you come here often?”  He rubbed at the shadow of scruff at his jaw.

“Sometimes,” the man said.  He removed his coat and draped it over his lap, then took a draught of his beer, pausing to wipe the foam from his mouth.   He studied Mathias.  “You’re a traveler,” he said after a length.

Mathias pointed at himself, blinking, the question half formed on his lips, but nodded.  “Yeah—yeah, I’m just passing through.  I mean.  I guess I lived here a long time ago—so is it really a traveler if you’re finally returning someplace?”  He chuckled a little and shrugged. 

“You’re rambling,” the man said. 

“Oh, I guess I am.”  Another chuckle.  Mathias stuck out his hand.  “The name is Mathias.  Uh.  Kohler.”  His grin lifted some of the fatigue from his face and brightened his eyes.

The man blinked.  “And you’re from this area?  Originally?”

“…Yes?”

Humming, the man nodded.  A smirk twitched at his lips, but he stared back down at his beer.  “Then you already know my name.”

“What?”

“You should know my name already,” the man repeated. 

“I…I’m not sure I know what you’re…”

The man pulled a rounded, smooth stone from his pocket.  Glossy black, it reflected the light as he turned it over in his palm.  He hummed as if Mathias hadn’t said anything.

Mathias pursed his lips as slow realization dawned; his eyebrows shot up.  “Wait.  Wait wait wait.  You’re—you’re Lukas Bondevik?  Like, the kid in my primary school Lukas—right?”  He leaned forward, peering intently into the man’s face, taking him in as if seeing him for the first time.  “Oh my god.  You _are_.  How long as it _been?_ ”

Lukas’s smile was wry. He shrugged.  “Maybe twenty years?”

“Huh,” Mathias said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “Wow.  Okay, this is a weird coincidence, isn’t it.”

“Maybe,” Lukas said.   The stone clattered as he set it down.  “Though, this is a town common between us, so maybe not.”

“Yeah,” Mathias said.  “But it’s been _years_.  We were seven years old when I moved away, you know.”  He reached tentatively forward, watching Lukas, then brushed his fingers across the rock when the other didn’t react.  “You still have this,” he said. 

“You said it had good luck,” Lukas said.  “I wouldn’t throw away such a gift.”  His laugh was more of a chiding scoff.

“Well?” Mathias asked.  “Was it?  Lucky, I mean.”

“Depends on how you look at things,” Lukas said with a shrug.  He cocked his head.

An easy silence filled the gap in their conversation.  Now Mathias fidgeted with the rock.

“Why are you here?” Lukas finally asked.

“Here?  In town?”

“Here,” Lukas repeated, jabbing a finger down at the bar.  “At 3 am.”

“Oh,” Mathias said.  “I guess just—I was just passing through.  And I didn’t have much a place to go.  It’s hard to sleep in my car, so I just came here for a bit.”

“Where are you trying to go?” Lukas asked.

Mathias shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’ll know it when I see it, I guess.”

“What did you leave behind?”

Another shrug.  “Not much.  Not as much as last time.” 

“Hm.”  Lukas masked a yawn in his elbow.  He’d finished his beer and now pushed the glass from palm to palm on the counter.  Finally, he plucked the rock from Mathias but pressed it in the other’s palm.  He closed his hand around it.  “Then take this.  Maybe you need your luck back.”

“I--?”

Lukas slid from his stool with another yawn, leaving behind a few bills, and headed for the door.

“Hey wait—“

Mathias’s fist tightened around the rock as he lunged after him.  “Wait!”

Lukas paused.  “Hm?”

“You never said—you never said where you were trying to go?”

“Nowhere,” Lukas said.  His lips pressed into a line, but he shrugged.  “Just nowhere.  I just come and go.”

Mathias opened his hand to reveal the rock.  “Beats me,” he said.  “But.”  He set the rock back into Lukas’s palm.  “If you need company to Nowhere, I sure as hell do.  Luck is better off shared anyway…so.”

Lukas stared at the rock in his hand.  “I don’t have much to leave behind.”

A slow smile spread across Mathias’s face.  “Then come with me.  It’d be good to have a familiar face around one in a while.”

“We were only kids back then,” Lukas said, but he was already following him out the door.

“Yeah, but maybe this wasn’t a coincidence at all,” Mathias said, “So looks like we’ll have some catching up to do.”  He gestured to one of the cars parked along the street out back.  “So.  You’re sure about this?  You’re really coming with?  Just out of the blue?”

Lukas climbed in.  “Like you said, luck is better off shared.” 

 


End file.
